Claudia Jones and Ella Baker :: Essays Papers

Claudia Jones and Ella BakerOn Christmas day 1964, Claudia Jones, only forty-nine years old, died alone in her capital of the United Kingdom apartment. Over three hundred people attended her funeral on January 9, 1965 to commemorate the woman who spent her entire adult life agitating against oppression. Visitors who come to capital of the United Kingdoms Highgate Cemetery see that next to the grave of Karl Marx there is the tombstone of Claudia Jones. Many wonder what earned her the honour of being buried beside the founder of scientific communism. 1 On the other side of the globe, Ella Baker, a leading African-American Civil Rights leader, was defending her theories of de primalized leadership. Tensions mounted in the movement when grassroots organizations rejected the ideas of central leadership and non-violence. One such organization, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), founded in part, by the efforts of Ella Baker, became dedicated to Ellas ideals of dece ntralized leadership, challenging the authority of high indite individuals in the Civil Rights Movement. In this paper I will examine the experiences of these two radicals. Both Ella Baker and Claudia Jones spent their entire adult lives writing, speaking and debating the issues that African-Americans faced. These issues include racist oppression, class hierarchy and the roles of women. However, although they both confronted the same issues, they had divergent philosophies that shaped their political careers. Their individual ideas can be examined in terms of Winston James explanation of radicalism and Cedric Robinsons theory of the development of the minatory Radical tradition. Although the radicalism of both Ella Baker and Claudia Jones fits within Robinson and James definitions, their unique experiences as women helped define their ideas and theories, and transform the role of women in the Black Radical tradition.In Winston James, Holding Aloft the Banner of Ethiopia, he d efines radicalism or radical politics as, the challenging of the status quo either on the basis of social class, race (or ethnicity), or a combination of the two. 2 He goes on to articulate, in terms of the above definition, radicals. According to James radicals, therefore, are swan anti-capitalists, as well as adherents of varieties of Black Nationalism. 3 Included in this definition are those who have attempted to unite anti-capitalist and nationalist thought. Though James examined Black Radicalism in terms of Caribbean migrants in the United States, his definition could be applied to native-born African-Americans as well.